DAY 1
Well, I am finally back! The new security restrictions didnt slow security down like I had expected. Instead, because everyone was worried that it would, everyone got to the airport early and it took forever to get thru check-in to head to the security check point. Once I finally got to the gate, I only had about 15 minutes so I hit the restroom and got in line. I flew Southwest ($137 RT). I was thankful for the free granola bar that they gave you on the plane as I didnt get a chance to grab breakfast. Uneventful and quick flight to MCO. I took Mears to PBH. Check-in went okay. They were training someone and she kept losing her place in her speech and kept having to start over. I had shipped a box to myself with some supplies and I knew that it had arrived 2 days before I did. They confirmed that it was there and said that it was in the business office and that since it was closed on Sundays, I would have to wait until the next day and come down and get it. Stunned with this response, I couldnt find the words to complain and just headed to my room. Unfortunately I got stuck in the far east wing near the hillside pool that no one even bothers to look for anymore. It was a king room though and very well kept so I decided to stay. I was a little uncomfortable at night returning as I had to go down 4 hallways from the elevator before reaching my room but it was okay. I called down for my box as it finally hit me that no way a hotel like this would give a guest that response and make them wait and tell them to come get it. I chalked it up to the girl being new (even though there was a veteran there with her) and maybe she was unaware of its weight. Anyway, when I called down, I explained to the star operator what was going on and she said that she would radio the person who had the key to the business office and have someone bring it up. I hung around for a little while but then decided I needed to hit some rides. I knew that I couldnt get sick without food on my stomach so I decided to hit the coasters before I ate. I went to IOA and rode Hulk without any wait. LOVE THAT FOTL!! The parks werent packed at all this week so even though the food lines were long, sometimes I didnt even use FOTL. I just felt silly getting in the express line with only a handful of people in the regular lines. I rode Hulk twice and was getting a little dizzy so I walked it off and got a pretzel. I didnt want to eat anything big as I was having lunch at Mythos! I also rode Spiderman which for some reason made me really dizzy and then I realized that the only beverage I had was a glass of gingerale on the plane. I grabbed a bottle of water and headed to Dueling Dragons. My favorite is front row of ice so I rode that first and then fire. I really needed food at this point so I headed to Mythos. I didnt do any restaurants on my first solo trip which was to Disney this past April so I was egging myself on the whole time. I didnt bother with a reservation like you guys said and I was sitting within 3-5 minutes. The atmosphere was a little of a let down. I guess after it being built up so much it just didnt live up. I thought I remembered someone saying something about light color changes but maybe that was only at dinner service? The food however was awesome. I suddenly didnt care that I wasnt excited about the décor because the food was so good! I sat at a table for 2 and faced the kitchen. I ordered a drink which I rarely do but somehow this trip I had every mixed drink there was
! Another poster had said to try the risotto and since I have never had risotto before I ordered that. It was like heaven. The waitress and manager were very attentive and I just hovered over the risotto (which had asparagus, mushrooms, and sea scallops in it) until it was all gone. I love the warm rosemary bread as well. Of course, my mother always says that I have a hole in the bottom of my lip and she must be right. In my glory of consuming my meal, didnt even notice that I had spilled some on my shirt. Oh well, it was too good. I also love the desserts. They are just enough for you not to feel too full. I had the chocolate mousse one. I wanted to give my food sometime to settle so I went to Sinbad and watched the show. I then headed over to UNIV and rode Shrek (the first of like 20 times this trip). My stomach was feeling good so I hit my other favorite, Mummy. I rode twice without any wait. It was so deserted that they just let you sit yourself. I was getting a little tired and wanted to go back and settle in and hit the pool so I headed back to PBH. My box still wasnt there so I called again. The person that answered transferred me all around and finally I got a nice person who said that she would investigate and call me back. She did and said that she had located the person with the key and that once he retrieved my box, he would contact me. He did a few minutes later and promptly brought my box. I unpacked and suddenly was so in relaxation mode that I just didnt feel like hitting the pool. I returned to UNIV around 6:30 pm. Shrek was letting people in to the pre-show so I ran into that again. Yes again! I then rode Earthquake and of course the Mummy again. The park was closing so I headed out. It was so hot!!! I wasnt ready to return to the room so I walked around City Walk for awhile and hit Margaritaville for a drink. When I returned to the room, turndown service had been there and it was so soothing in the room. I jumped on my high king bed with 5 fluffy pillows, wrapped up in my PBH robe and didnt move again. Tomorrow I plan to finally hit the villa pool which is the reason I came back to PBH and try and find Bubba Gump Shrimp. I just couldnt seem to find it today 
!
DAY 2
I woke up at 7:30 but hung around the room until 10:00 am. I made some coffee and read the paper. I had shipped fruit cups, granola bars, and cereal to myself so that was breakfast. I decided to hit the parks first and then when it got unbearably hot, return to the villa pool. I went to UNIV and unfortunately, Fear Factor was closed. It was closed the entire week. The sign said due to setup for Halloween Horrors which seemed to early to me but oh well. I had a quick ride on Mummy to get my juices pumping. I then rode MIB and BTTF and another ride on Mummy. In my opinion, it is definitely time for BTTF to go. It is so uncomfortable and outdated. Though I may be alone in this, I would love to see Jaws and BTTF replaced with something new. I went to Richters for lunch. I love going here. Best burger on the property in my opinion. Unfortunately, someone decided to change the bread and it wasnt good. The burger was mushy and I thought I remember being able to get onions and mushrooms before? Anyway, I ate it but later got sick. May have also had to do with the fact that I hadnt had red meat in 2 months?? It was so hot at this point and I headed to PBH for my dip in the villa pool. Oh I cant wait!!! Housekeeping hadnt been by yet so I just changed to my swimsuit quickly and headed out of the room. I hiked all the way over to the villa pool .I approached the corridor ..I am walking up to the steps ..and rats, foiled again! There is a sign that they are doing maintenance on the pool and that it would be closed for a few days. I was totally bummed as it was the reason I wanted to return to PBH. So I went to the beach pool instead. Not the same but it did the trick. I attempted to read but it was so hot that I kept sweating and dripping all over my book. I had to keep jumping in the water to stay cool. To top it off, the one waiter (always seems to be at PBH) paid no attention to my side. In the 2 hours I was there, I never could get a hold of him to get a cool drink or anything. This is one thing that is definitely lacking at PBH and I have had this happen here before. Not like HRH where there are waiters everywhere and they are so attentive. PBH needs more pool staff. I just couldnt stand it anymore so I packed up and headed out in search of something cool. After trekking over to the Gelateria, I discovered that it was closed for the afternoon. I think that this is a little inconvenient with them closing for a few hours in the afternoon but I guess that it isnt a busy time for them. As I am close to the room, I just headed in. I took a shower and a quick nap and headed back out around 6:30 pm. I had intended on hitting UNIV and then the movies but it didnt work out that way. I was wearing jeans and it turned out to be a hot evening and I just didnt feel like running around in them with my sandals on so I only rode one ride Shrek! I was unfortunately beginning to feel a little lonely at this point and hanging around for 2 hours until the movie started just didnt appeal to me. I forced myself to hang where a lot of people were until I was ready to go back to the room. I grabbed a margarita and sat in the lounge chairs outside of margaritaville for a little while and listened to the music. Couldnt shake the loneliness thing for some reason and just decided to call it quits. I circled around the lake and headed back to PBH. I stopped in the Gelateria for a snack and to get milk for breakfast the next day. So I am back in the room at 9 pm. I know, riveting isnt it? I am starting to think that a long trip to Universal alone wasnt such a good idea. With FOTL you go thru the lines so quickly that the day just had all of this time. I am heading to Sea World tomorrow so I hope that I can shake this and maybe the break from Universal will be good.
DAY 3
I had breakfast in the room and headed down for the 9:50 shuttle to Sea World. There was also one at 10:20 to the park. The return wasnt until 8 pm so if I get tired I will just take a taxi back. I hadnt been in years so I was so excited to go and see every show and hit every ride. The loneliness was definitely gone as I had so much to do! I saw a couple of shows and then got in line for Journey to Atlantis. The shuttle driver told us to avoid the front seat but after waiting 30 minutes to ride, I just wanted on. Against my better judgement, I hopped in the front seat. Before we even approached a drop, I was soaked. Partly from the ride and partly from the father sitting behind me. His daughter was sitting next to me and he decided that it would be funny to cup his hands and pick up water and dump it on the both of us. It mostly wet me and not wanting to cause a scene I just laughed it off. His daughter finally told him to stop as I was getting most of the water. When I got off, I was so wet after the drop! I loved the ride and hey, that is what water rides are supposed to do. It was good fun and I decided to drip my way over to Kraken. I was so wet and my jean shorts were so heavy I thought that they would slip off. I also became worried that I would slip out of the harness on the roller coaster as I was so wet. I got in line and really there was no one there. Lucky for me and I decided to wait for the 1st row. Loved this ride. Especially the first row. I rode again without any wait and the ride stayed this way for a while with no line. I had a classic look on my face so decided to purchase the ride photo. I had to get back to the locker with my money first though, still dripping wet! I had lunch at ??? sorry forgot the name of the grille. It was an Italian place with pasta and pizza. I got a soda, thank god, mountain dew I can breathe again, pasta with grilled chicken and alfredo sauce, and a slice of cake. It was good but a little steep at $14 I thought. At this point, I realized that I didnt pay attention to the schedule and since they were doing dine with Shamu, there were no afternoon shows with him. BUMMER I am going to have to miss Shamu this trip as the only show left was when my shuttle was coming back. I bought the kids some souvenirs and just walked around a bit in between shows. I still love it here and it was nice to be seeing all these attractions for the first time. I headed to the shuttle around 7:30 and waited. Turned out to be perfect timing as I had originally thought that 8 pm was too late. There were a lot of people waiting for various shuttles and I was getting worried as they all looked alike and it was hard to see the letters on the buses. Ours finally came and I got back to the hotel around 8:30 or so. Everyone got off at RPR and HRH. I was the only one returning to PBH. A little scary on that big bus but we were only crossing the street
! I stopped at Sals and took a pizza to the room. It was an awesome day!
DAY 4
Dont say yuck but I had pizza left over so I ate it cold for breakfast. The shuttle had just left and the weather was looking funny so I decided to take the walk to the parks. I made it to HRH when the shuttle came past and I jumped on. I went to IOA to hit the water rides. I got soaked of course. I love when I get in cars/boats with people who have never rode before. They make it so much fun for the rest of us! I then .now dont call me a dork ..spent every quarter I had in the water gun machines wetting the people on the rides. This turned out to be hours of fun
! I couldnt wait to get back and be one with my villa pool at last. I grabbed my stuff from the room and headed over. RATS!! It is still closed today as well. I guess the beach pool will have to do again. Luckily I got an umbrella this time and there was a waiter who ran around that pool all day and was very attentive to everyone! I read my book and had a Caesar salad and mango margarita. I ordered a gingerale but misunderstanding me, he brought me another margarita. Not wanting to disappoint, I drank it and later when I tried to get that gingerale, he said okay, another margarita? I had to practically trip him to stop him and get it straight. I finally got my soda and the skies decided to open up. That poor little man was running in the rain with a stack of checks trying to get signatures from scrambling guests. I was in such a hurry, I forgot that they automatically add the tip and added another. Oh well, he ran around in that hot sun. Not sure he deserved the 38% I ended up giving him but I bet he was happy. I made it back to the east wing before it started to really pour. I took a shower and watched a movie while waiting for the rain to slow down. This one turned out to be a long and heavy storm. I headed out to UNIV around 6 pm and of course, rode Mummy a couple of times and MIB
.and you guessed it
Shrek! I walked over to Margaritaville to have dinner but the wait was long so I decided to head to Bubba Gump. I had finally located it a couple days back under the escalator in front of the movie theatre. There was no wait and I was told to go right in. The seating hostess, when she discovered I was alone said, oh, you must be just here for dinner. I assume that you are from Florida? Uh no I told her, I am on vacation. By yourself she exclaimed. YES I told her. She then said, did you want to sit at the bar? Okay, I was okay with this question, why waste a table on a solo person if you do not have to but when I told her no, we waited a while for the table to be cleared and she asked me again if I wasnt sure I would like to sit at the bar. I finally made it to my table and after having the menu in my hands for 5 seconds, the waiter came to take my drink order. Not having read the menu, I just ordered the first drink I saw. Delta sunset I think it was called
.anyway, very good and I got the souvenir shaker. He asked if I wanted an appetizer but then realized that I hadnt even opened the food menu and said he would be back. When he returned, he realized that no one else was joining me and said oh, since you are alone I guess that you dont want an appetizer! OKAY
WHY NOT? Just because I was dining alone, why couldnt I have an appetizer, entree and dessert like everyone else. One thing if everything was huge
even then
hello, doggy bag! But there were small appetizers and I corrected him and ordered the soup. I also ordered Lt. Dans Drunken Shrimp as my entrée. I watched the movie on the big screen while I waited for my food and just people watched. Unfortunately, my experience here was not like the one I visited in Hawaii. They never asked me any trivia questions and I was ignored most of the time. I also do not like the location of the restaurant and thought that it was rather small. The soup came out and I wanted to ask my waiter where he was hiding the can opener. It was terrible. My entrée, though a little spicy was really good though but too many mashed potatoes and not enough
.you guessed it
..SHRIMP! I handed the waiter my AP and room key along with a survey that he had handed me. He returned to the table and gave me back the receipt and said that I would need that to get my souvenir shaker from the gift shop, my AP and my room key. He also gave me back my survey but no receipt to sign and tip???? I was confused and after he passed my table a few times and he kept giving me the hurry up look, I motioned to him. He came over and I asked, Umm can I have the check to sign? He said, HUH? I said, I gave you my room key and annual pass to ring up the bill. He said, Oh, I got the discount but I thought you were giving me your room key for identification. OKAY BUDDY 
I gave him the cards again and.. so I wait a few more minutes for the check and am finally out of there. I headed to the gift shop for my glass and to get my mom a shirt.
DAY 5
I was still full from dinner so skipped any signs of breakfast. I went to IOA and rode Poseidin which I hadnt yet done this trip. I also trekked past the water rides and unloaded a pocket full of quarters in the water guns again! Okay, I know, I am a dork! I stopped at Burger Digs for some chicken fingers and made a call in to the office to check on things. I had avoided this all week but I work with my sister and I knew that in my absence, my office was giving her chest pains. I let her vent for awhile and then hung up so that I could return to PBH and finally have 1 day in the villa pool. I had just missed the water taxi and before I could catch another, the skies opened up. They stopped the shuttles and I hid under the awning of the ticket counter at UNIV until the rain slowed. It was too heavy even for an umbrella or poncho. When it slowed down and was just thundering, I walked back to PBH. By the time I got back though and before I could get my swimsuit on, the skies opened again and it poured. This continued for awhile and it became apparent that I would not visit the villa pool this trip. When it slowed down to a spritz a couple of hours later, I headed out and just decided to go to the movies. I grabbed my popcorn and soda and joined the other 2 people in the theatre
. A few more later came in. Just think
there was a whole 9 of us in there. This was a first for me as I have never gone to the movies alone. I went back into UNIV but just didnt feel like doing much. I had just enough time for a ride on Terminator before the park closed so I did that and returned to PBH. I stopped at Sals again for a pizza and ate in the room while I packed.
DAY 6 LAST DAY
Well I finally made it to the last day. I again ate left over cold pizza for breakfast and called down for a late checkout. I headed to IOA to hit the coasters and then to UNIV to hit the Mummy. I realized that I had never been thru the regular queue and decided to get in the regular line. I was in front of these adorable 2 little boys and their father. The father was trying to talk the little boys into the ride. One of them asked if I had been on it and I told them all about the ride and then spoke with the father about where I was from and where I was staying. See you miss this kind of stuff sometimes in the FOTL line. Anyway, I had so much fun laughing at them trying to decide who would be sitting on the outside and who got to sit on the inside next to daddy. When we got up to the front, I told the ride attendant that there were 4 of us as I had to ride with them. The father was really appreciative and a good time was had by all. I ran into them again after the ride when they had joined up with their sister and mother and steered toward the next great ride before I headed out.
RECAPS
I had a good time as always at Universal. Not sure I would do solo over 6 days again though. You get the whole park done so fast with FOTL and without others there to linger over meals and kick around the park with, it did become lonely. This wasnt the case at Disney as you spend most of your time in line and there are many parks. Dont get me wrong, Universal is still my favorite I just think that I would plan other things to do in Florida and not spend my whole time at Universal. As my day away at Sea World proved to be a much needed break.
Thanks for listening. On to plan my nieces surprise trip next summer to HRH!
Well, I am finally back! The new security restrictions didnt slow security down like I had expected. Instead, because everyone was worried that it would, everyone got to the airport early and it took forever to get thru check-in to head to the security check point. Once I finally got to the gate, I only had about 15 minutes so I hit the restroom and got in line. I flew Southwest ($137 RT). I was thankful for the free granola bar that they gave you on the plane as I didnt get a chance to grab breakfast. Uneventful and quick flight to MCO. I took Mears to PBH. Check-in went okay. They were training someone and she kept losing her place in her speech and kept having to start over. I had shipped a box to myself with some supplies and I knew that it had arrived 2 days before I did. They confirmed that it was there and said that it was in the business office and that since it was closed on Sundays, I would have to wait until the next day and come down and get it. Stunned with this response, I couldnt find the words to complain and just headed to my room. Unfortunately I got stuck in the far east wing near the hillside pool that no one even bothers to look for anymore. It was a king room though and very well kept so I decided to stay. I was a little uncomfortable at night returning as I had to go down 4 hallways from the elevator before reaching my room but it was okay. I called down for my box as it finally hit me that no way a hotel like this would give a guest that response and make them wait and tell them to come get it. I chalked it up to the girl being new (even though there was a veteran there with her) and maybe she was unaware of its weight. Anyway, when I called down, I explained to the star operator what was going on and she said that she would radio the person who had the key to the business office and have someone bring it up. I hung around for a little while but then decided I needed to hit some rides. I knew that I couldnt get sick without food on my stomach so I decided to hit the coasters before I ate. I went to IOA and rode Hulk without any wait. LOVE THAT FOTL!! The parks werent packed at all this week so even though the food lines were long, sometimes I didnt even use FOTL. I just felt silly getting in the express line with only a handful of people in the regular lines. I rode Hulk twice and was getting a little dizzy so I walked it off and got a pretzel. I didnt want to eat anything big as I was having lunch at Mythos! I also rode Spiderman which for some reason made me really dizzy and then I realized that the only beverage I had was a glass of gingerale on the plane. I grabbed a bottle of water and headed to Dueling Dragons. My favorite is front row of ice so I rode that first and then fire. I really needed food at this point so I headed to Mythos. I didnt do any restaurants on my first solo trip which was to Disney this past April so I was egging myself on the whole time. I didnt bother with a reservation like you guys said and I was sitting within 3-5 minutes. The atmosphere was a little of a let down. I guess after it being built up so much it just didnt live up. I thought I remembered someone saying something about light color changes but maybe that was only at dinner service? The food however was awesome. I suddenly didnt care that I wasnt excited about the décor because the food was so good! I sat at a table for 2 and faced the kitchen. I ordered a drink which I rarely do but somehow this trip I had every mixed drink there was
! Another poster had said to try the risotto and since I have never had risotto before I ordered that. It was like heaven. The waitress and manager were very attentive and I just hovered over the risotto (which had asparagus, mushrooms, and sea scallops in it) until it was all gone. I love the warm rosemary bread as well. Of course, my mother always says that I have a hole in the bottom of my lip and she must be right. In my glory of consuming my meal, didnt even notice that I had spilled some on my shirt. Oh well, it was too good. I also love the desserts. They are just enough for you not to feel too full. I had the chocolate mousse one. I wanted to give my food sometime to settle so I went to Sinbad and watched the show. I then headed over to UNIV and rode Shrek (the first of like 20 times this trip). My stomach was feeling good so I hit my other favorite, Mummy. I rode twice without any wait. It was so deserted that they just let you sit yourself. I was getting a little tired and wanted to go back and settle in and hit the pool so I headed back to PBH. My box still wasnt there so I called again. The person that answered transferred me all around and finally I got a nice person who said that she would investigate and call me back. She did and said that she had located the person with the key and that once he retrieved my box, he would contact me. He did a few minutes later and promptly brought my box. I unpacked and suddenly was so in relaxation mode that I just didnt feel like hitting the pool. I returned to UNIV around 6:30 pm. Shrek was letting people in to the pre-show so I ran into that again. Yes again! I then rode Earthquake and of course the Mummy again. The park was closing so I headed out. It was so hot!!! I wasnt ready to return to the room so I walked around City Walk for awhile and hit Margaritaville for a drink. When I returned to the room, turndown service had been there and it was so soothing in the room. I jumped on my high king bed with 5 fluffy pillows, wrapped up in my PBH robe and didnt move again. Tomorrow I plan to finally hit the villa pool which is the reason I came back to PBH and try and find Bubba Gump Shrimp. I just couldnt seem to find it today !DAY 2
I woke up at 7:30 but hung around the room until 10:00 am. I made some coffee and read the paper. I had shipped fruit cups, granola bars, and cereal to myself so that was breakfast. I decided to hit the parks first and then when it got unbearably hot, return to the villa pool. I went to UNIV and unfortunately, Fear Factor was closed. It was closed the entire week. The sign said due to setup for Halloween Horrors which seemed to early to me but oh well. I had a quick ride on Mummy to get my juices pumping. I then rode MIB and BTTF and another ride on Mummy. In my opinion, it is definitely time for BTTF to go. It is so uncomfortable and outdated. Though I may be alone in this, I would love to see Jaws and BTTF replaced with something new. I went to Richters for lunch. I love going here. Best burger on the property in my opinion. Unfortunately, someone decided to change the bread and it wasnt good. The burger was mushy and I thought I remember being able to get onions and mushrooms before? Anyway, I ate it but later got sick. May have also had to do with the fact that I hadnt had red meat in 2 months?? It was so hot at this point and I headed to PBH for my dip in the villa pool. Oh I cant wait!!! Housekeeping hadnt been by yet so I just changed to my swimsuit quickly and headed out of the room. I hiked all the way over to the villa pool .I approached the corridor ..I am walking up to the steps ..and rats, foiled again! There is a sign that they are doing maintenance on the pool and that it would be closed for a few days. I was totally bummed as it was the reason I wanted to return to PBH. So I went to the beach pool instead. Not the same but it did the trick. I attempted to read but it was so hot that I kept sweating and dripping all over my book. I had to keep jumping in the water to stay cool. To top it off, the one waiter (always seems to be at PBH) paid no attention to my side. In the 2 hours I was there, I never could get a hold of him to get a cool drink or anything. This is one thing that is definitely lacking at PBH and I have had this happen here before. Not like HRH where there are waiters everywhere and they are so attentive. PBH needs more pool staff. I just couldnt stand it anymore so I packed up and headed out in search of something cool. After trekking over to the Gelateria, I discovered that it was closed for the afternoon. I think that this is a little inconvenient with them closing for a few hours in the afternoon but I guess that it isnt a busy time for them. As I am close to the room, I just headed in. I took a shower and a quick nap and headed back out around 6:30 pm. I had intended on hitting UNIV and then the movies but it didnt work out that way. I was wearing jeans and it turned out to be a hot evening and I just didnt feel like running around in them with my sandals on so I only rode one ride Shrek! I was unfortunately beginning to feel a little lonely at this point and hanging around for 2 hours until the movie started just didnt appeal to me. I forced myself to hang where a lot of people were until I was ready to go back to the room. I grabbed a margarita and sat in the lounge chairs outside of margaritaville for a little while and listened to the music. Couldnt shake the loneliness thing for some reason and just decided to call it quits. I circled around the lake and headed back to PBH. I stopped in the Gelateria for a snack and to get milk for breakfast the next day. So I am back in the room at 9 pm. I know, riveting isnt it? I am starting to think that a long trip to Universal alone wasnt such a good idea. With FOTL you go thru the lines so quickly that the day just had all of this time. I am heading to Sea World tomorrow so I hope that I can shake this and maybe the break from Universal will be good.
DAY 3
I had breakfast in the room and headed down for the 9:50 shuttle to Sea World. There was also one at 10:20 to the park. The return wasnt until 8 pm so if I get tired I will just take a taxi back. I hadnt been in years so I was so excited to go and see every show and hit every ride. The loneliness was definitely gone as I had so much to do! I saw a couple of shows and then got in line for Journey to Atlantis. The shuttle driver told us to avoid the front seat but after waiting 30 minutes to ride, I just wanted on. Against my better judgement, I hopped in the front seat. Before we even approached a drop, I was soaked. Partly from the ride and partly from the father sitting behind me. His daughter was sitting next to me and he decided that it would be funny to cup his hands and pick up water and dump it on the both of us. It mostly wet me and not wanting to cause a scene I just laughed it off. His daughter finally told him to stop as I was getting most of the water. When I got off, I was so wet after the drop! I loved the ride and hey, that is what water rides are supposed to do. It was good fun and I decided to drip my way over to Kraken. I was so wet and my jean shorts were so heavy I thought that they would slip off. I also became worried that I would slip out of the harness on the roller coaster as I was so wet. I got in line and really there was no one there. Lucky for me and I decided to wait for the 1st row. Loved this ride. Especially the first row. I rode again without any wait and the ride stayed this way for a while with no line. I had a classic look on my face so decided to purchase the ride photo. I had to get back to the locker with my money first though, still dripping wet! I had lunch at ??? sorry forgot the name of the grille. It was an Italian place with pasta and pizza. I got a soda, thank god, mountain dew I can breathe again, pasta with grilled chicken and alfredo sauce, and a slice of cake. It was good but a little steep at $14 I thought. At this point, I realized that I didnt pay attention to the schedule and since they were doing dine with Shamu, there were no afternoon shows with him. BUMMER I am going to have to miss Shamu this trip as the only show left was when my shuttle was coming back. I bought the kids some souvenirs and just walked around a bit in between shows. I still love it here and it was nice to be seeing all these attractions for the first time. I headed to the shuttle around 7:30 and waited. Turned out to be perfect timing as I had originally thought that 8 pm was too late. There were a lot of people waiting for various shuttles and I was getting worried as they all looked alike and it was hard to see the letters on the buses. Ours finally came and I got back to the hotel around 8:30 or so. Everyone got off at RPR and HRH. I was the only one returning to PBH. A little scary on that big bus but we were only crossing the street
! I stopped at Sals and took a pizza to the room. It was an awesome day!DAY 4
Dont say yuck but I had pizza left over so I ate it cold for breakfast. The shuttle had just left and the weather was looking funny so I decided to take the walk to the parks. I made it to HRH when the shuttle came past and I jumped on. I went to IOA to hit the water rides. I got soaked of course. I love when I get in cars/boats with people who have never rode before. They make it so much fun for the rest of us! I then .now dont call me a dork ..spent every quarter I had in the water gun machines wetting the people on the rides. This turned out to be hours of fun
! I couldnt wait to get back and be one with my villa pool at last. I grabbed my stuff from the room and headed over. RATS!! It is still closed today as well. I guess the beach pool will have to do again. Luckily I got an umbrella this time and there was a waiter who ran around that pool all day and was very attentive to everyone! I read my book and had a Caesar salad and mango margarita. I ordered a gingerale but misunderstanding me, he brought me another margarita. Not wanting to disappoint, I drank it and later when I tried to get that gingerale, he said okay, another margarita? I had to practically trip him to stop him and get it straight. I finally got my soda and the skies decided to open up. That poor little man was running in the rain with a stack of checks trying to get signatures from scrambling guests. I was in such a hurry, I forgot that they automatically add the tip and added another. Oh well, he ran around in that hot sun. Not sure he deserved the 38% I ended up giving him but I bet he was happy. I made it back to the east wing before it started to really pour. I took a shower and watched a movie while waiting for the rain to slow down. This one turned out to be a long and heavy storm. I headed out to UNIV around 6 pm and of course, rode Mummy a couple of times and MIB
.and you guessed it
Shrek! I walked over to Margaritaville to have dinner but the wait was long so I decided to head to Bubba Gump. I had finally located it a couple days back under the escalator in front of the movie theatre. There was no wait and I was told to go right in. The seating hostess, when she discovered I was alone said, oh, you must be just here for dinner. I assume that you are from Florida? Uh no I told her, I am on vacation. By yourself she exclaimed. YES I told her. She then said, did you want to sit at the bar? Okay, I was okay with this question, why waste a table on a solo person if you do not have to but when I told her no, we waited a while for the table to be cleared and she asked me again if I wasnt sure I would like to sit at the bar. I finally made it to my table and after having the menu in my hands for 5 seconds, the waiter came to take my drink order. Not having read the menu, I just ordered the first drink I saw. Delta sunset I think it was called
.anyway, very good and I got the souvenir shaker. He asked if I wanted an appetizer but then realized that I hadnt even opened the food menu and said he would be back. When he returned, he realized that no one else was joining me and said oh, since you are alone I guess that you dont want an appetizer! OKAY
WHY NOT? Just because I was dining alone, why couldnt I have an appetizer, entree and dessert like everyone else. One thing if everything was huge
even then
hello, doggy bag! But there were small appetizers and I corrected him and ordered the soup. I also ordered Lt. Dans Drunken Shrimp as my entrée. I watched the movie on the big screen while I waited for my food and just people watched. Unfortunately, my experience here was not like the one I visited in Hawaii. They never asked me any trivia questions and I was ignored most of the time. I also do not like the location of the restaurant and thought that it was rather small. The soup came out and I wanted to ask my waiter where he was hiding the can opener. It was terrible. My entrée, though a little spicy was really good though but too many mashed potatoes and not enough
.you guessed it
..SHRIMP! I handed the waiter my AP and room key along with a survey that he had handed me. He returned to the table and gave me back the receipt and said that I would need that to get my souvenir shaker from the gift shop, my AP and my room key. He also gave me back my survey but no receipt to sign and tip???? I was confused and after he passed my table a few times and he kept giving me the hurry up look, I motioned to him. He came over and I asked, Umm can I have the check to sign? He said, HUH? I said, I gave you my room key and annual pass to ring up the bill. He said, Oh, I got the discount but I thought you were giving me your room key for identification. OKAY BUDDY
I gave him the cards again and.. so I wait a few more minutes for the check and am finally out of there. I headed to the gift shop for my glass and to get my mom a shirt. DAY 5
I was still full from dinner so skipped any signs of breakfast. I went to IOA and rode Poseidin which I hadnt yet done this trip. I also trekked past the water rides and unloaded a pocket full of quarters in the water guns again! Okay, I know, I am a dork! I stopped at Burger Digs for some chicken fingers and made a call in to the office to check on things. I had avoided this all week but I work with my sister and I knew that in my absence, my office was giving her chest pains. I let her vent for awhile and then hung up so that I could return to PBH and finally have 1 day in the villa pool. I had just missed the water taxi and before I could catch another, the skies opened up. They stopped the shuttles and I hid under the awning of the ticket counter at UNIV until the rain slowed. It was too heavy even for an umbrella or poncho. When it slowed down and was just thundering, I walked back to PBH. By the time I got back though and before I could get my swimsuit on, the skies opened again and it poured. This continued for awhile and it became apparent that I would not visit the villa pool this trip. When it slowed down to a spritz a couple of hours later, I headed out and just decided to go to the movies. I grabbed my popcorn and soda and joined the other 2 people in the theatre
. A few more later came in. Just think
there was a whole 9 of us in there. This was a first for me as I have never gone to the movies alone. I went back into UNIV but just didnt feel like doing much. I had just enough time for a ride on Terminator before the park closed so I did that and returned to PBH. I stopped at Sals again for a pizza and ate in the room while I packed.DAY 6 LAST DAY
Well I finally made it to the last day. I again ate left over cold pizza for breakfast and called down for a late checkout. I headed to IOA to hit the coasters and then to UNIV to hit the Mummy. I realized that I had never been thru the regular queue and decided to get in the regular line. I was in front of these adorable 2 little boys and their father. The father was trying to talk the little boys into the ride. One of them asked if I had been on it and I told them all about the ride and then spoke with the father about where I was from and where I was staying. See you miss this kind of stuff sometimes in the FOTL line. Anyway, I had so much fun laughing at them trying to decide who would be sitting on the outside and who got to sit on the inside next to daddy. When we got up to the front, I told the ride attendant that there were 4 of us as I had to ride with them. The father was really appreciative and a good time was had by all. I ran into them again after the ride when they had joined up with their sister and mother and steered toward the next great ride before I headed out.
RECAPS
I had a good time as always at Universal. Not sure I would do solo over 6 days again though. You get the whole park done so fast with FOTL and without others there to linger over meals and kick around the park with, it did become lonely. This wasnt the case at Disney as you spend most of your time in line and there are many parks. Dont get me wrong, Universal is still my favorite I just think that I would plan other things to do in Florida and not spend my whole time at Universal. As my day away at Sea World proved to be a much needed break.
Thanks for listening. On to plan my nieces surprise trip next summer to HRH!
